Three months after immigrating to Brooklyn, N.Y., from his native Caribbean country of Jamaica in 1999, Teflon Wint signed his name on the dotted line and enlisted in the U.S. Army to serve the United States of America.
On April 4, the 405th Army Field Support Brigade senior supply system technician and installation supply representative will be promoted to Chief Warrant Officer 5, the highest rank in the U.S. Army Warrant Officer Corps. “It means a lot to me. It’s my way of representing all immigrants, showing that we do contribute, and we do sacrifice a lot for our country, the United States of America,” said the 46-year-old Army supply and logistics expert who served four tours in Iraq following 9/11.
“For me, this promotion to CW5 is humbling. I’m helping to carry the legacy and break stereotypes.” Wint will be promoted to CW5 during a special ceremony at the Danner Kaserne Chapel in Kaiserslautern, starting at 4 p.m. April 4.
His youngest son, Teflon Wint II, will graduate from U.S. Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps almost exactly a month later and commission as an Army cyber officer. Wint said he couldn’t be prouder. “He’s the youngest of my four children,” said Wint, who has been married for almost 26 years and also has a 27-, 28- and 31-year-old.
“Family is everything. Five combat deployments, three operational tours to Africa within 28-months and numerous other times away from them took a toll on my family.
“They sacrificed so much. They sacrificed just as much as I did, and I love them very much.”
Wint said this year is special for so many reasons. Of course, he’s being promoted to CW5, but also the U.S. Army Warrant Officer Corps celebrates its 107th birthday, and even more significant the Army celebrates its 250th.
“I couldn’t think of a better time to get promoted,” said Wint.
“I get to do it on the same year as the Army’s 250th birthday, and I get to enjoy all this with family and friends so it’s really special for me. Happy 250th birthday, U.S. Army!”
Wint, who enlisted in the Army as an automated logistical specialist, went to the U.S. Army Warrant Officer Candidate School in 2008 in Alabama as a staff sergeant. Seventeen years later the senior warrant officer in the 405th AFSB is responsible for advising the brigade commander on all things supply and logistics but specifically warehouse management optimization and supply from a maintenance perspective.
As the brigade’s senior supply system technician, Wint overseas the supply support for the Army Prepositioned Stocks-2 program, but he is also the U.S. Army Europe and Africa installation supply representative in support of the entire theatre. This includes over 40 supply support activity locations, several of which are at APS-2 worksites and a few more that standup to specifically support rotational forces when they deploy to eastern Europe.
Wint said: “We’re moving parts from one location to the next to fill customer requirements to improve equipment downtime.
“We’re looking at long lead time parts that are affecting equipment downtime, and we are looking at existing Army stocks, meaning stocks owned by U.S. Army Materiel Command and stored at the supply support activity locations, to do what we call lateral support.” The U.S. Army Warrant Officer Corps is comprised of over 25,000 men and women of the active Army and Reserve components, who are technical experts who manage and maintain increasingly complex battlefield systems.
